"We've seen a couple of cases of that issue with the MVC registration process," said Essex County Clerk Christopher J. Durkin. "I don't believe that it was really huge in scope but in our case, the people who were affected double-checked months earlier to make sure they were cleared to vote. In this case, they weren't registered, so it was straightened out with the commissioner of voter registration before it became an issue."

Jersey City residents Charley Taylor and Stephanie Zaharek each found out Saturday that they weren't registered to vote. They checked with the Hudson County Board of Elections after Zaharek struck up a conversation with a woman in a knitting store who said she was blocked from casting an early ballot. The woman, like Taylor and Zaharek, had registered to vote through an MVC plan that allows anyone getting a new license, issuing a change of address or renewing a license to also register to vote.

"There is a full complement of judges in every county seat so that they can hear residents explain why they should be allowed to vote," Durkin said. "When they make a decision, the vote counts as an actual ballot, not a provisional ballot."

More than one election official, speaking not for attribution, said that polling judges almost always side with the voters who are trying to cast their ballots.

Abe Michaels, who works for the Obama campaign as a consultant on voter issues, said that, in some cases, voters can fill out provisional ballots. "When you have a real issue and there isn't a clear-cut residency issue, the voter can cast a conditional ballot at a polling station. Then, after the election, independent judges will decide the validity of those conditional ballots."

No representative from the GOP hotline or state office returned calls Sunday afternoon.

One Bergen County official, who declined to give her name, said, "We're getting our power back on and slowly our lives are coming back together. Thanks to everyone's hard work, we will have an election. It might not be perfect, but it's a miracle that we're getting it done."

"The weather issues in New Jersey are going to bring about real challenges on Tuesday," Michaels said. "I don't expect that anything there is going to be easy.''

Durkin agreed. "What we're experiencing is unprecedented," he said. "We're doing our utmost to make sure the voting process is preserved and encouraged. In Essex County, we're trying to consolidate polling locations to make it easiest for voters to know where to go if their usual location is closed. We will have signs up to direct them where to go with the least amount of obstacles. We've also set up a reverse 9-1-1 call to let people know where to go to cast their ballots."

As for Governor Christie's directive that those dislaced from their homes by Hurricane Sandy can vote by fax or email, the ballots those Garden State residents will fill out are federal ballots, not local ballots.

"In these cases, these residents will be treated like they are either military personnel stationed overseas or U.S. citizens living abroad," Durkin said. "If they don't have power, they can use their smart phones or go to an internet cafe and send their request and get the federal ballot. Then they're on the honor system to cast their vote."

One Atlantic County elections worker, who asked for anonymity because she wasn't authorized to speak on the record, said, "We've been thrown too many curveballs this week and we've been in a lot of meetings and working hard to make make sure the contingency plans work. We're counting down to Wednesday, that's for sure."